Beautiful Dancer

One of the parts of school that Starling is enjoying the most is her drama club they created just for her.  And her favorite part of drama club is dancing and choreography.  My lil’ princess loves to dance!

She has been begging me to sign her up for dance class, but I just don’t have the time to drive her all over town for classes and such.  I am absolutely overwhelmed with my commitments without adding any more.  I need a lil’ “Me” time, especially right now.  I decided to surprise her with a dance photo shoot instead of the whole class thing.  The photographer was a little confused about why we were doing a dance photo shoot for a child who doesn’t actually take dance, so I had to give her a lil’ piece of my mind.  She shut her prayer hole and started snapping away after that.

I love this shot of her “practicing” in casual clothes.

Maybe if another family can drive her to every class and perhaps lend her some shoes etc. we can work it out.

Professional Head Shots

Each year the PTO president sends home a letter in the back to school packets on the first day of the year.  I usually just toss it, but obviously this year everyone will want to read up on when the meetings will be and who is welcome to come (officially everyone, but there are certain people who should probably know better) and what our purpose is, etc.  In the past they try to make it fun by printing it on special paper with a school bus border, but Cari and I know better.  We are making our letter interesting and informative and we decided to include photos of ourselves, so new families recognize us and know better than to just approach us in the halls of school.

Today was the day of our professional photo shoot.  We started the day by dropping the kiddos (except Starling, who is amazingly still camping with Röbby!) off at my mother-in-law’s for a little surprise visit.  I explained to her housekeeper that this was planned, even though it wasn’t and I am sure it was a lovely treat after bridge lessons for a very beloved Grandmama.  Then we went to Cari’s house to do a lil’ wardrobe consult.  We had a hair and makeup people meet us there.  What the heck!  We decided to mix things up a lil’ with some extensions.  Then we had the photography team show up to do their magic.  We explained that we want to appear normal and approachable in these pictures, and they clearly understood exactly what we meant.

Cari had soft curls, and she looked absolutely gorge!

Only Cari could carry off this kind of plunging neckline in a school bulletin. Brava!

I went with some ringlets, like I used to have in college.  I felt so pretty.  I wish Röbby were home to see me, but he would probably just end up asking about the cost.  It was not inexpensive, but I consider it an investment in our future.

I think I look beachy, tousled and sexy here.

I think I should probably look into an intern to write the darned thing for us.  We are off to have a few drinks at a new outdoor beach themed bar.  I am sure that Grandmama would insist on having the littles stay for dinner if we had time to ask her.

Missed Opportunities

At the beginning of a vacation, I always feel like I have all of the time in the world to do anything I want.  A lil’ catalog shopping, checking up on a few facebook friends (and frienemies, lol!), getting enviable vacation photos…  Here I am on my last day and I am regretting being so laid back and a fun mum this year, because there are so many pictures my friends will expect to see, and I just don’t have them. 😦  There is no silhouette of children jumping off the dock holding hands, no ice cream dripping on the hand shot, no sleeping with daddy in the hammock shot, no photo of a small hand wrapped trustingly in my beautifully manicured larger (but not overly large) hand.  Why did I waste an entire day letting the children play, and another entire day with that miserable bitch, Kathy?

Yesterday I got the children up early and we constructed a boat out of some cardboard boxes and then spent several hours painting it.  I hate it when these things look slapped together, so Merlin had to get that paint just perfect.  We finished just before dinner and I managed to get the perfect shot of children’s carefree joy as they played together on a lazy summer day.  I nearly lost it with Merlin because he leaned into a wet patch and got some on his sailor suit, but he was able to scrub it out last night.

Ahoy mateys. We are bound for Imagination Island!

This morning Röbby had planned a very early fly fishing excursion with the kids.  He knows my opinion on very early anything, so he said I could sleep in.  I managed to talk him out of taking the kids.  He deserves a lil’ time to himself too and you just know Merlin would have scared the fish away with his incessant chatter.  As soon as Röb left, I got everyone up and we went for a quick photo session with a nearby photographer.  I wanted some fall shots, so the kids wore sweaters despite the heat.  Hummus was pretending he was going to faint, which was hilarious!

Everything is so dry around here from some stupid drought everyone can’t shut up about, that it is ruining a lot of my planned shots. Look at that grass!

I then put the boys in the car for an hour or so to have a little rest while we got a few quick shots for a modeling or maybe pageant portfolio.

She looks like an angle!

Röb managed to spend hours fishing today and brought home no fish.  Typical!  He just went into town to get everything for a weenie roast.  I hope he isn’t serious about the hot dogs, but you never know with that man!  I am going to take a nice long shower and just relax from my stressful day.

Down on the Farm

When we got up this morning the children were begging to play in the lake, but I had other plans.  We are way out in the country, so it was high time for a lil’ excursion to a farm.  The closest pick your own place is just 45 minutes away, but we didn’t have a cell service and I don’t know how it is my fault that I can’t find a place without GPS.  The farm was just perfect when we finally got there, though.

The photographer I hired was a bit testy about being kept waiting, so we didn’t have time to pick any peaches.  I quickly spiffed the kids up and we had a lovely time being photographed in the orchards.

It was incredibly hot out, but we look so beautiful. We are like a storybook family.

We had to do another quick change into “cowboy” duds for a few shots in the hayloft too.  I loved some of those shots.

I don’t know what it is about it, but I just love this picture!

The trip home took less than two hours but I was exhausted from all of the time I spent preparing and organizing this special day for my family.  A mommy’s work is never done though.  Starling was upset that she didn’t get to pick anything or pet the baby animals they had at the farm.  There just wasn’t any time!  She and I wandered over to a neighbor’s garden while they were out and picked all of their beautiful ripe tomatoes.  I am sure they would want a sweet lil’ girl like Starling to have some tomato water with dinner!

She did get to pick someting after all!

Wow, vacations are exhausting for us hard working mamas.  I have more fun up my sleeve for tomorrow too.

Family Photo Shoot

I decided to have a family photo shoot yesterday and didn’t even tell Röbert because he would just complain about cost and blah blah blah.  Unfortunately he had to work all day (on a Saturday!  So unfair to me!) and Hummus had a runny nose and did not look cute at all.  So I had Merlin take care of Hummus and turned it into a Mommy-Daughter photo shoot.

First we did some kind of vintage looking ones in black and white.  They didn’t come out as cute as I had hoped!

Not cute enough for me!

So then I had the photographer wait and Starling and I ran right over to the mall (Hummus was asleep for most of the time so Merlin could EASILY handle babysitting) and bought some cool clothes and then took some photos at the park.  This one was my favorite.

So cute of both of us!

But they say the camera adds ten pounds and in this case it did, in my thighs!  Ugh!  I did a little photoshopping and got the perfect picture.  Shhh!  I think Röbert might find this blown up and framed under the Christmas tree this year.

This is how I normally look. My thighs are very toned and slender.

Later I noticed that Hummus was kind of lethargic so I took his temperature (VERY high!  I don’t know why Merlin didn’t tell me.) and gave him some Benadryl.  I hope he feels better soon, because he cries a lot when he is sick.